Bunny Chow

This is a special dish from South Africa. I came across it on my trip there but I did not prepare it until now.

There is a bit of history to this dish. It was invented by the Indian ethnic group living in South Africa in the city of Durban in 1940. The Indians were brought to the country to work in the sugar cane industry. South Africa was under Apartheit and the non white races were not allowed to go to restaurants. They could not carry cutlery like knifes and so they came up with hollowed out bread to carry the dish and eat it that way. Indian curry was vegetarian in the beginning and sold out of back doors from restaurants to people who were excluded. Later the curries were made with meat too.  Today you would call that Take-Out.

My curry has a lot of veggies in and the protein source is turkey breast. I made it the Japanese way, because I love their style of curry and the leftovers can be eaten with shortgrain rice. And I have some blocks of Curry Roux sitting in the cupboard.

Recipe:
1 loaf of white bread
350 g turkey breast strips
1 onion
2 spring onions
3 cloves of garlic
1 knob of ginger
1 10 cm piece of leek
2 carrots
1/5 celeriac
4 medium potatoes
800 ml chicken stock
4 cubes of curry roux
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Worchester sauce
salt and pepper
2 tbsp oil

Peel and chop all the veggies. Season the meat with salt and pepper.
In the oil start the meat until it is no longer pink, add onions and garlic and give it 3 more minutes.
Add all other veg, stir and add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes.
Chop the roux into small chunks, this way they dissolve much faster.
Stir and cook for 10 minutes until the broth thickens.

For a final touch add ketchup, Worchester sauce and soy sauce.
Cut the bread into half, hollow out the middle and fill in the curry.

When you do not feel well

When you have a stomach problem and need a light meal to eat, Chicken Soup and Rice is a traditional recipe to go to. Leave out the meat and just use the broth. Chicken Soup contains salt and a light fat and rice is easy to digest.

This dish was a bit pimped up to make it more interesting to eat. Just a little green from one spring onion and a beaten egg with some white pepper.

For a congee it did not have enough liquid, the dish looked a bit like a not well made risotto. But it helped me and tasted a lot better then the bland look it had.

recipe:
400 ml homemade chicken stock
1/2 cup of Basmati rice
1 spring onion
1 egg
white pepper

Bring the stock up to the boil and add the rice, stir well and reduce the heat.
Chop the spring onion very fine and add it to the rice.
Beat the egg with some pepper and stir it in when the rice is ready.

Blue grapes jelly

A huge plastic bag with fresh picked blue grapes arrived at my office desk early last morning. The commentary was: now you know what you will do tonight. These are surprises that I actually hate.
I had an appointment for an hour and I started to extract the juices a couple of minutes after I came home.

I use a steamer over hot water and that gets the job done. I weighted the bag and had 2,7 kilo in it. After an hour of steaming the grapes and crushing them with a potato masher I extracted 1,8 liter of dark red grape juice.

Then I went out to my appointment and came home a good hour later, allready planning what to do next. Most of the time I have enough clean mason jars sitting around so I can start making jellies. But the moment I checked,  just 6 large jars were available. I picked some small yogurt jars to fill in the overflow later and gave to my coworkers. They loved it.

2,7 kilo blue Portugeser grapes are about 1,8 l grape juice
750 g 3x1 jelly sugar with pectine
2 tsp citric acid

Mix the cold juice with the special sugar. Bring to a boil and let it cook rapidly for 6 min.  After 4 min add the citric acid.
Put a spoon ful of jelly on a cold surface. After a short time you should ge able to push a finger through and the line stays.
fill in clean jars, close the lid and set them on the lud for 5 min, then turn and let cool down.

 

White Rocky Road

I needed something to feed my coworkers again. First thought was baking a cake, but when I checked how many of them are actually in the house tomorrow I went against it.

OK. Bake some cookies.
Then I found a nice recipe of Nutella muffins on Pinterest, but the amount of Nutella left in the jar cancelled that idea.
While looking for the Nutella I found 4 slabs of white chocolate, some candied cherries and lots of other things.
The recipe of Rocky Road popped into my head.
I have bought some butter cookies from the Bretagne last time I was in France. I was ready to go.

recipe:
400 g white chocolate
50 g crushes almonds
50 g dried cranberries
3 candied ginger sticks
1 tbsp goji berries
50 g dessicated coconut
2 hands full of mini marshmallows
125 g crushed butter cookies
50 g candied cherries

That was what I found in my cupboards. Feel free to use whatever you´ve got on hand!

Use a pot with boiling water and set a heatproof bowl on top. Crush the chocolate bars and let them melt. It takes a long time because you need to melt them on medium heat only.

In a second bowl, crush the cookies, chop the cherries and mix everything thoroghly.

Put the dry stuff in the bowl you took off the heat and stir well until everything is coated in  chocolate.

Use a baking dish and enough clingfilm to cover it later with it.
Pour the mix in, close the clingfilm and start to press down and form a slab of chocolate.
Set aside and let it set again. You can let it set even at room temperature.

Cut it into small chunks and serve it to the hungry masses.

German style Schweinebraten or pork roast

This is the traditional Sunday lunch in many households here in Germany. Pork roast is a classic.
Most families buy a bigger piece so that they can have some leftovers with lots of sauce in the following days. I remember very well these kinds of roasts from my childhood.
I gave it a bit more international flavour - because I can. It changes nothing from the way of cooking though.

First thing is the type of pork meat chosen. Many households are looking for the leaner pieces of pork, others take pieces from the neck of the pig, which is more fatty.
This time I had a lean piece of pork and it still did not get dry - I cooked it on low temperature for a bit longer then most people do.

recipe for 3:
600 g lean pork roast
1 tbsp pork roast seasoning (Schweinebratengewuerz)
1 onion
1 spring onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 red chili
1 stalk rosemary
1 carrot
1 piece of leek
1 stalk celeriac
100 ml white wine
300 ml homemade chicken stock
200 ml water
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp hot paprika paste (from Hungary) or tomato paste
salt and pepper
2 tbsp rapeseed oil

Rub the pork with the seasoning and add some salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a pot and sear the meat on all sides. Add the chopped veggies and the paste and then the flour. Give it a good coating.
Add wine first then the rest of the liquid.

Close the lid and bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 80 min, turn the pork midways.

I served it with potato mash and some fresh turnips.

Sitting in a Beer Garden

I was out in the countryside and met with lots of people from my former office. 80 % are now retired and it was fun to see them again after a long time.
Our meeting spit was an old beer garden that is attached to a horse farm. The chestnut trees gave some shade. We were lucky and had late summer weather.

In most beer gardens there is no service at the table. You go outside to the side of the kitchen and order your food. In this place you get a pager to pick up your food when it is ready.
On an other spot you order your beverages and take them back to your place after paying them.
I had a German classic. FLEISCHKÄSE topped with fried egg and some steakhouse fries with a pot of wholegrain mustard.
It was a huge portion and I left over a hand full of fries.

Others had Bratwurst or Cooked Cheese or Schnitzel. Everybody was satisfied.

Making use of lots of tomatoes

This week started the main harvest time of my tomatoes and chilis. Just eating them when they are picked from the vine is not longer an option. Even my coworkers are not longer excited to eat so much tomatoes every day.

I love caprese salads, but not everyday! I have now 10 freezer bags filled with double portions of tomato sauce for the next season and there will be more.

Last night when I came home, picked an other bowl off the vines, I used to big yellow and orange striped ones to make melted tomatoes over pasta.

Soo good and so fresh.  Just  use a spring onion and a bit of garlic and cut the tomatoes into bite size pieces. Heat good quality olive oil, but not to hight and melt the tomates in it. Pour over pasta and grate some cheese on top. A bit of fresh ground black pepper and you are good to go and enjoy.